The development of the bi-directional support system for the homecare patients by using Skype

我们一直专注于信息技术（IT）作为一种工具，以支持痴呆症的家庭护理患者及其照顾者的有用性。在日本，IT通常被视为“纯粹的“技术。它主要用于使用GPS系统跟踪流浪痴呆患者，然而，其有用性在临床医学领域还没有得到很好的理解。我们相信，开发一个双向连接医务人员和家庭护理患者的新系统是遏制不断增长的医疗成本和提高患者和护理人员福祉的关键。在本研究中，我们使用FletsPhone（NTT西日本）作为一种简单便携的电视电话。我们对痴呆患者（京都大学医院）进行了为期3个月的每周一次的干预计划，以检查健康状况，并利用FletsPhone的触摸屏系统提供康复计划。与对照组相比，治疗组的认知评分无明显改善，但PGC道德量表评分有不同程度的提高。患者和照顾者对通过电视摄像机进行干预的满意度很高。从这个结果，我们得出结论，使用基于IT的电视摄像机的干预方案是有效的，以支持家庭护理患者和照顾者。成本-效果良好，值得在临床医学领域推广应用。

We have been focusing on the usefulness of information technology(IT) as a tool to support the homecare patients of dementia and their caregivers. IT is often regarded as a"mere"technology in Japan. It is mainly used in tracking the wandering dementia patients using GPS system, however, its usefulness is not yet well understood in the field of clinical medicine. We believe that development of a new system which connects medical staff and homecare patients bi-directionally is a key to curb growing medical costs and increase the well-being of the patients and caregivers. In this research proposal, we utilized FletsPhone(by NTT West Japan) as an easy and portable TV phone. We performed the intervention program for dementia patients(Kyoto University Hospital) once a week for 3 months to check health status and give a rehabilitation program utilizing the touch panel system of FletsPhone. Although the cognitive score was not improved significantly compared to the control group, the score of PGC Moral Scale increased to some extent. The patients and caregivers showed great satisfaction about the intervention via TV camera. From this result we conclude that the intervention program using IT-based TV camera is effective to support homecare patients and caregivers. The cost-effectiveness was excellent and should be utilized in the field of clinical medicine widely.